PRESIDENT Buhari, today, inaugurated the three million metric tonnes per annum fertilizer plant in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, hoping that the project will enhance his administration’s drive for food security and reduce unemployment and poverty.
The fertilizer plant estimated to have cost $2.5b is owned by Alhaji Aliko Dangote and adjudged to be the second largest in the world.
At the inauguration, Buhari, who commended the investor, assured investors that the Federal Government would continue to provide enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
The president promised to partner the private sector on tax credit scheme to reduce cost of operations.
On his part, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who also commended Alhaji Aliko Dangote for dreaming big and actualising the completion of the fertilizer plant, was optimistic that the fertilizer plant will not only increase revenue for Nigeria, but also increase employment opportunities, as the fertilizer is already to be exported to United States, India and Brazil.
Thanking Buhari for being present at the historic event, GovernorBabajide Sanwo-olu, applauded the investor on behalf of the indigenous people of Ibeju Lekki for siting the project in their neighborhood.
President of Dangote Group of Industries, Dangote, who identified lack of fertilizer supply to low productivity of agricultural produce, stated that the new plant would increase local production of fertilizer and supply to small and medium scale farmers.
He pledged to partner state governments and farmers’ associations to increase food sustainability across the country.
The fertilizer plant occupies five hundred hectares of land within the Lekki Free Trade Zone area of Lagos and expected to create over five thousand direct and indirect jobs.
The president also commissioned the newly built international terminal at the Muritala Muhammad Airport.
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